Friday 23 March 2007 20.08 EDT
First published on Friday 23 March 2007 20.08 EDT

Cadiz, Spain

Nick Lock, owner of the Casa Caracol hostel, is somewhat of a hammock expert. While most students pick up bar jobs or stack shelves to top up their beer money, Cotswolds-born Nick funded his masters in marine biology by buying hammocks from the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and shifting them in Britain and Costa Rica.

Nick's hammock peddling days are over, yet the obsession remains. Since snapping up a collection of apartments on a central Cadiz backstreet in 2003, he has converted the rooftop terrace into a veritable shrine to suspended loafing. During the day, hostel guests swing in the sun, playing cards at one end of the terrace where four hammocks are arranged around a table. By night the terrace turns open-air slumber garden where guests sleep under the stars, waking up to the waft of jasmine, lemon, orange and banana trees, honeysuckle and gardenia sprinkled across the terrace.

And the price? Peanuts. Sleeping in one of the eight rooftop hammocks will set you back €10 a night. If you'd prefer to sleep at floor-level, there are 32 beds in the apartments below for €15 a night. If you fancy chipping in with some hostel chores - a bit of cleaning, cooking the evening meal (each evening the Caracol cooks up big pots of something or other for a couple of euros a head), or sorting the laundry - then you won't have to pay a penny. Chilling in the downstairs lounge area, sculpted out of an old courtyard with a removable roof, is free.

Lecce, Italy

Taking up the second floor of a 16th-century barocco leccese (Lecce's distinctive baroque architecture) listed building, the Centro Storico Prestige is an appropriate base from which to explore Lecce's buzzing old university town. The building is lodged on the main street of the town's historical centre, with a roof garden, where brekkie is taken looking over the Duomo and the Basilica della Santa Battista.

Cheap eat Prosit (via Vignes 1) is a sultry little cocktail and wine bar next to the San Matteo Church in the old town. Inside, a little Leccese kitchen serves up stomach fillers to accompany copious samples of wine dished out in large goblets.

Getting there Ryanair from Stansted to Bari.

Korcula, Croatia

You'll have to excuse the Korcula Backpacker One Love Hostel its cheesy name, but the place is owned by a (ahem) celebrity you see: Zee, as he is known, was the runner up in South Africa's Big Brother. Cheap options on the Croatian islands off the Dalmatian coast are difficult to come by, yet this large refurbished villa is ideally located next to the ferry port, and has the only beach in the old town on its front door step. The owners try to throw a party every night, which is commendable, and probably something to do with being called Zee.

Cheap eat Mussels. Yup, you heard me. Korcula is one of the cheapest and best places to eat mussels on the Adriatic, usually caught and consumed within half a day. The Konoba Briskule (Setaliste Frana Krsinica) serves up a giant plateful for under four quid.

Olympos, Turkey

Olympos has been a Mediterranean hippie backpacker haven for years, where (somewhat appropriately) most of the accommodation options are up a tree. In the middle of an orange grove 10 minutes walk from the beach, Bayram's Treehouse can sleep up to 200 guests in air-conditioned single, double or triple tree houses kitted out in kilims, mattresses and sheets. It isn't a total wilderness either - Bayram's has its own bar, all day tea and coffee, internet facilities, travel library and laundry.

Athens, Greece

Run by a family of Ozzies, the Athens Backpackers has a reputation as a bit of a party palace. Yes, that means toga parties. It also means hangover preparedness - there's also a cosy chillout area with an abundance of sofas and a big screen showing films all day long. The location is prime - minutes away from the Acropolis metro station, with Hadrian's Gate and the Temple of Olympian a five-minute wander. And for the Acropolis itself? Head to the open-air roof bar and gaze at will.

Cheap eat The hostel owners point their guests round the corner to the brilliantly named Restaurant of the Gods taverna (Nakri Gianni 2), where a three-course meal and a drink will set you back a rather un-godlike €8.

Getting there To Athens with easyJet from Gatwick and Luton, and with FlyGlobespan (flyglobespan.com) from Glasgow and Stansted.